Rocket-Surgery

Have a good and safe Thanksgiving for you and yours.

Seems even the 'green-ies' are miffed about the bogus global-warming data. It's even being called "Climate-gate" now. Heh.

I almost hate to say I told you so, but I don't really.

...but not as Captain Kirk.  Or at least, not that Captain Kirk.

Matt Damon was asked to play his dad.

As the week progresses, I'll be adding (and probably removing) some stuff.

Big item on my to-do list is to change the way things are listed.
I hope to have a menu at the top that links to specific category listings.

Stay tuned for further tuning.  :-)

OK, here's what I've been working toward.

I'm "re-branding" a bit and dropping the old "Diary of a Mad IT Manager" trope, especially as I am no longer an IT manager.

Now it's Rocket-Surgery.

I'll be making some more changes to the site look/function/feel over the next couple of days.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Looks like another light night for me on blogging.

I'm working on re-vamping the site a bit.  Hopefully I'll be back up to speed tomorrow.

Pardon the sparcity of new stuff.

I'm actually working on a new project. If I can work out the bugs, I'll have more info in a day or two.

Stay tuned.

Why is it they think up really great ideas but the implementation is always horrible? I don't know how they couldn't see this one coming:

"Microsoft and various retailers have teamed up to bring you cashback on
purchases made via Bings price comparison feature. There is a little snag though
— it seems that when you have a Bing cookie living in your browser, some
retailers will quote you a higher price than if you come with no Bing cookie in
your system."

Hell, that was the first thing I thought of when I heard it.

Plymouth Road Runner Concept Car on Ebay

Yours for only $950,000. What cracked me up was the "low monthly payments" link next to the Buy It Now button.

Examiner.com has a nice article for newly unemployed dads and how to cope.

I know from my own experience what a blow this can be to the male psyche. Depression, check. No clue how to deal, check. Loss of self-esteem, check.

I find their recommendations spot on. When I lost my job, I spent the first week just keeping busy. I didn't look for a job, I tried to find my center. I cleaned the garage. I cleaned the house. I did everything on my honey-do list. And then I made a plan.

One of the big things that ironically helped me was my wife coming down with the flu. She was sick for almost 2 straight weeks. This gave me impetus to actually get up in the morning, get the kids ready and to school, and to keep moving! When she got better, I found I resented her ursurping my new role. It was keeping me sane and giving me grounding. I had developed a very much needed schedule, and I had people (my kids) depending on me. It felt good to be needed.

Even though she took back over most of her "duties", I continued trying to be helpful, just in different ways. I definitely set myself a schedule. I never allowed myself to sleep late, always getting up with the rest of the family. Helping to get the kids ready and to take them to school.

Those weren't the best days of my life, but I still value them. I really reconnected with my family.

My advice for unemployed dads: Get on a schedule, just like going to a job everyday. Make some time to perform your job seeking (that's your new job) and stick to it daily. Help out when and where you can. And here's a biggie: Just remember that you're not alone. You aren't the only one stressed-out. Your family wants you to succeed and they want to help you. You don't have to shoulder the burden alone. That was a tough one for me to learn. Hopefully it won't be for every Dad.

I've avoided talking about the leaked CRU data and e-mails floating around on Al Gore's internets. Not because I wouldn't want to gloat. Nope, because I was afraid it was a bogus attempt to sling some crap. I figured the information was either totally made-up or taken way out of context.

But now I and others have had an opportunity to review the code, I can say I now believe it. Yep, Global-Warmers altering data to fit their hypotheses. Who would've thunk it?

Watts Up With That? broke the original story and continues working to bring the shameful hoax that is global warming into the light of scrutiny.

Carry on, brothers.

Zombie Outbreak Simulator

It uses Google maps but right now only does Washington DC. Funny, instructive, and fun! Two thumbs way up!

From /.

"Netbooks are more likely to fail within the first year than their more expensive laptop brethren, according to new research. SquareTrade, an independent US warranty provider, analyzed the failure rates of more than 30,000 laptops covered by its own warranties. It found that 5.8% of netbooks malfunctioned within the first year, compared to 4.7% for regular laptops and 4.2% for premium laptops costing more than $1,000. The research also raises question marks over the legendary reliability of Macs. Three PC manufacturers — Asus, Toshiba, and Sony — boasted better reliability rates than Apple. Macs have a 17.4% malfunction rate over three years, compared to market-leader Asus, which has a 15.6% failure rate. HP was the worst of the nine PC vendors listed, with a malfunction rate of 25.6% over three years."

This /. user seems to sum it up: "So you're telling me that something cheap isn't as well made as something expensive? Allow me to go re-evaluate my life..."

At first, I thought this might be a use related issue. Let's face it, netbooks are more likely to be treated more roughly than their full-sized counterparts due to their very nature, but that seems to have been taken into account in the data analysis. The rates are based on extended warranty plan failure rates, so you know they aren't going to pay when it's user-fault issues.

It still seems mostly related to manufacturer. Obviously, some produce better product than others. Duh.

"I can’t even imagine where someone would be coming from wearing golf shoes, short jorts, a fanny pack, and a Bob Segar shirt besides the greatest party of all time.
Indiana"

Black Friday. The day I'll be hiding in my basement, supposedly keeping an eye on the rug-rats, while the wife begins her all day shopping extravaganza.

If you're like me, you avoid leaving the house on the day after Thanksgiving.

On the other hand, if you prefer to be out in the madness, you might appreciate this article on USA Today in which they list some great sources of information about all the Black Friday only deals.

Good luck with that.

Uncle, of SaysUncle.com, is an old friend of mine, and over the years we've had many interesting conversations.

Uncle, as you can imagine, has quite the lively imagination.

One of my favorites was his definitions. Believe it or not, Uncle has a degree in psychology. His definition for psychology is *ahem* interesting. He claims that the word "psychology" is from the Greek "Psyche", or the mind, and "-ology", to make stuff up. Literally, he translates it as psychology means to make stuff up about the mind. Funny stuff.

Well, taking his definition a bit farther, we have climatology, or to make stuff up about the climate.

If you read here on a semi-regular basis, you'll know I think global warming is totally made up. We just don't have enough climate data to predict what's coming and what the causes are. Saying mankind is responsible for global warming is even more ludicrous when you look at the polution emitted by volcanoes each year. Sorry guys, but mankind's polution has been a drop in the bucket comparitively speaking. I'm not saying I'm for raping the earth, strip mining, and wholesale polution. I'm actually for being environmentally sound and keeping our home clean. What I am against is white guilt.

White (caucasian) people seem to have this obsessive need to feel guilty about stuff. Whether it be destroying the Earth or slavery or shipping butt-loads of guns to Mexico (see the Mexican Gun Canard), we seem to have this innate desire to blame ourselves for it. We really need to get over this obsession.

Let's face it. We really don't know what causes global warming or global cooling or Al Gore. They're forces of nature and right now, we just don't know enough to truly understand it. Until we do, we need to lay off the blame game and spend our resources figuring out what's really going on instead of playing political games.

Speaking of which: Climatologists Baffled by Global Warming Time-Out
That's a fairly even look at the current trend in global warming, or lack there-of, and the narrow-mindedness of some scientists who completely deny their own data. I can see why, though. No one will pay you to figure out what to do about global warming if there isn't any.

It's all about the benjamins, I guess.

Laser system destroys unmanned aerial vehicles in tests

Yeah, now that's what I'm talking about. If we can only make it small enough to strap to the heads of sharks...

Money worries about robots taking over the world, especially cannibalistic-sniper variety robots. (That website's just a front. Ask the guys in the black helicopters)

But if this is the best they can do, I'm not too terribly concerned. Look at that, they need an entire floor of computers to simulate the brain of a cat.

Of course, if they pack all that into a giant-robot cat, that would be terrifying.

I love the fact that Google can't figure out what to advertise on my blog.

The sidebar just contained ads for:

• Machu Picchu
• Sharpe guns (probably paintball stuff--have I ever mentioned paintball?)
• Fashion fans stuff (um, yeah, I'm a fashion maven)
• Obama & Bernanke's secret war on the dollar (ok, definitely not a consipiracy kind of guy - I may rag on Obama, but then, I rag on everyone)
• Another add for paintball guns (seriously?)

Usually there's some stuff about dating geeks and Star Trek/Wars or finding an IT job.

Isn't Google cute?

Especially if you have small children. Or live in Baghdad.

Bomb-proof wallpaper

Best Of What's New 2009: Bombproof Wallpaper Test from PopSci.com on Vimeo.

It's estimated that the Chicago PD has access to some 15,000 camera feeds.

So be careful where you pick your nose in Chicago. There's probably someone watching.

Dad only speaks to his son in Klingon for 3 years.

I'm a Trekkie, but dude, that's just going too far.

This is truly awful and I apologize completely, but it still makes me laugh.

Once there was a church that had a bell that no one could ring. One day, a boy came and asked the priest if he could try. So the boy went up into the tower and ran straight into the bell, face-first. The bell tolled loud and clear. The shocked priest gave him the job. But one Sunday, he ran straight toward the bell with his face and missed and fell off the tower and died.

"Congregation," the priest said before the assembled masses. "Does anybody know this boy's name? Because I don't know him, but his face rings a bell."

So, you're in the market for a new SUV, and you're fairly picky about the options.
It needs to have:

• Body armor (actually, the MOST body armor)
• Gold-plated windows
• Diamond encrusted grill and gauges
  
• 450 HP v-8
• Pure Tungsten exhausts
• Comes with really expensive alcohol
• and has all whale-penis leather interior

You might think such a vehicle would be difficult to find. Not so, my friends!

Let me introduce you to the Monaco.Red.Diamond.

The car company has thrown three bottles of Russo-Baltique, the vodka brand it created this year to mark its100th anniversary, Motor Authority reported.

Last year, a bottle retailed for £790,000. It is not a meant to be drunk, the company's website explains - instead it should be displayed as art.
That's because the bling of the bottle frankly puts the SUV to shame.
According to the Dartz company's website, the flask, a replica of the radiator guard used for the Russo-Baltique cars, is made from gold coins minted between 1908 and 1912. This is around the time the company manufactured its first car.

The flask cap is made from white and yellow gold and contains a diamond-encrusted replica of the Russian Imperial Eagle.

And finally, the bottle itself is made of bulletproof glass 30cm thick - just in case.

The car - and vodka - were produced especially for the mega-exclusive Top Marques luxury motor show in Monaco next year.

The car is made by the company that produced armoured vehicles for Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, and Tsar Nicolas.

Oh, and it's rocket-grenade proof (they say). Sweet!

I'm a big NPH fan. Now he's Tweeting.

Wow, a celebrity I might actually follow on Twitter.

Probably light blogging tonight.

I'm studying for my electricity test tomorrow. Actually, I've been studying for it since last week (when I found out I needed to take it for a possible job opening), but I'm spending my last few waking hours cramming.

I just took the self-assessment and made a 25/25, so hopefully that means I'm ready.

Wish me luck! This would basically double my salary and put me into a new job that's hopefully not completely night-shift.

Update: I qualified, so I don't have to take that test again for another 7 years. Now I move on to the second test, digital communications, which I actually know something about.